Star Trek: Discovery Cast Greets Fans, Tells All (Not Really) During Toronto’s Fan Expo

Star Trek has been blessed with quite a loyal fan base over the years, even with underachieving TV series to shall we say, less than stellar movies. Now, Trek fans have a new television series on the horizon, Star Trek Discovery, and after a few brief clips, it’s been fandom overload in terms of deciphering what it’s going to be about and what the new crew will be like.

Recently, the bulk of the cast gathered together in Toronto during the annual convention Fan Expo to talk all about the upcoming series and what their characters are about. Ok, there were no real plot leaks or details given out, though some fans really tried, but we got to know some of the cast and what it was like walking into this behemoth of a franchise.

Sonequa Martin-Green talked about her character’s upbringing and the importance of it to the story. “Being human and being raised by Vulcans was a real culture shock and caused a huge identity crisis, never mind the fact that Sarek and Amanda are my surrogate parents and Spock my surrogate brother.”

Jason Issacs, who plays Captain Gabriel Lorca, talked about why he decided to take on the role and join the franchise. “There was no sense trying to step into the shoes of those that came before me, such as William Shatner, so I took the role based on it being an exciting and interesting character that seemed was on a long journey and one that was also a story of our times.”

Doug Jones has been gracing the screen with his incredible character for many years, usually under a ton of wonderful and interesting make-up and costumes. As Lt. Saru, he is the first Kelpien to enter Starfleet and Jones took this on because of the incredible opportunity it gave him. “It is great to be able to help build not only a character but a species from the ground up, even if he is a hunted species where he comes from. As an actor, this was a really great opportunity.”

Perhaps one of the biggest grumblings from fans so far is the ‘new’ look of the Klingons. However, Kenneth Mitchell, who plays Kol, seems more excited about how deep the show gets to go into the Klingon culture. “Kol is the house leader of the house of Kor, sort of the alpha Klingon amongst the Klingon houses, a great warrior. However, we get to explore the twenty-four different houses and ideologies of these houses, something that really hasn’t been done before.”

Besides everyone being happy to work on a show with great people and great actors, there can be no denying the actors themselves were quite aware of the nerd culture they were joining, with some of them being Star Trek fans themselves.

“It was great playing Lt. Stamets, to be the first openly gay character on Star Trek without it really being a big deal in terms of the show itself,” said actor Anthony Rapp. “But one of the truly great things about this role is I’m a nerd myself, a Star Trek fan and I never thought I’d be on Star Trek so that thought alone makes my head explode on a daily basis.”

Jason Issacs had his own take on his nerd moments on the show. “You can’t get caught up in what people are saying, what fans are saying, you have to stay in the moment. Like the first time I said ‘Energize’, it wasn’t until later that I realized hey, I just got to say energize. It also took me a while to sit in the captain’s chair, a few episodes, because that was like holy ground, my buttocks would be sharing the same chair as Shatner, Stewart, and others.”

With a show as popular as Star Trek, there will always be discussions/arguments amongst its fan base about honestly, every little thing. But this collection of actors seems determined to make the show their own and enjoy every last minute of the experience.

Star Trek Discovery premieres September 24th on Space